This invention relates to a cabinet having one or more compartments for containing cooking appliances such as a high frequency heating apparatus, and more particularly to such a cabinet having a construction that a cover is attached to the front thereof so as to cover a space between the front outer periphery of the cooking appliance and inner periphery of the compartment of the cabinet.
As disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. 59-8724, a cooking appliance, for example, a high frequency heating apparatus is provided with a key switch on an operation panel so that the key switch is operated to electromechanically open a door of a cooking chamber. In such a high frequency heating apparatus as described above, the door cannot be opened unless the apparatus is energized. Accordingly, food or foodstuff cannot be taken out of the cooking chamber when the failure of electric power supply occurs during the cooking operation.
To solve the above-described problem, the inventor previously applied for a patent on an invention in U.S.A., which application has been assigned Ser. No. 298,984 and is pending. This application discloses a high frequency heating apparatus including means for mechanically unlocking the door from the outside as well as the means for electromechanically unlocking the door. The mechanical unlocking means includes a manually operated member positioned at the underside of the door.
On the other hand, a cabinet for containing a plurality of cooking appliances or a cooking appliance such as a high frequency heating apparatus together with other cooking utensils has been commercially produced. When the high frequency heating apparatus is put into one of compartments of such a cabinet, a space between the high frequency heating apparatus and the compartment occasionally defiles the appearance of the cabinet. For this reason, a framelike front cover is provided on the front of the compartment so as to cover the front outer periphery of the high frequency heating apparatus, thereby concealing the space from view.
When the high frequency heating apparatus having both electromechanically and mechanically door unlocking means is contained in the compartment of the cabinet having such a front cover as described above, the manually operated member provided at the underside of the cooking chamber door is covered by the cover member. Consequently, the door cannot be opened in the occurrence of failure of electric power supply unless the cover is detached from the cabinet.